Our Teachers

Teachers are the core of all good programs. The faculty at IEC has years of experience teaching in United States, South America, Europe, and Asia.

Faculty Bios

Ali Tubio

Ali graduated from California Polytechnic State University with a BA in Modern Languages and Literatures (Spanish and German) and received her MA TESOL from San Francisco State University. Ali lived in southern Spain for one year to study Spanish, and from 2004-2005 she taught English in Austria with the Fulbright Program. In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, dancing salsa, reading and travelling. Ali is thrilled to be teaching ESL in the Bay Area, and has been teaching at IEC since 2007.

Ann Carlson

Ann has been teaching at IEC for five years. She spent one year teaching in Japan as part of an exchange program with her school district. She has lived and taught in Prague in the Czech republic, and in Kinshasa in the Congo. She taught ESL to immigrant students for almost 20 years in Alaska. She received her MA from SIT in Brattleboro, Vermont, and her BA from Goddard College. Currently she lives in Berkeley with her son and his family.

Anrisa Fannin

Anrisa has been at IEC since 2002. She got her B.A. at U.C. Berkeley in Geography and her M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from San Francisco State. She also teaches ESL classes at Diablo Valley College. In her free time, she tutors at Buddha Gate Monastery and travels. She has lived and worked in Germany and Italy.

Dennis Imada

Dennis has been at IEC since it started in 2000. He received his Master's degree in (Teaching) English as a Second Language from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He has taught ESL in Hawaii, Japan and California. He has also worked in cross-cultural training and development for multinational firms. In his free time he enjoys repairing and riding bicycles and surfing.

Jeff Puccini

Jeff got his BA from the University of Wisconsin in English Lit, his TESOL Certificate and MAT from SIT. He has taught abroad in Venezuela and South Korea. He is a licensed SIT TESOL Certificate teacher trainer. His recent interests in the classroom include the lexical approach and reflection. When he's not teaching, he enjoys hiking, biking, and camping in the Bay Area, and beyond. On the weekends he likes to read and drink coffee.

Jenn Gemma

Jenn has been teaching for over ten years, including Spanish and ESL. She received her Masters Degree at St, Mary's College of California and taught in Spain for three years before returning to the United States. Jenn is also a teacher trainer and has trained in the US, Spain, Korea, Mauritania, and Mexico.

Jerry Bush

Jerry has a master's degree in English (TESOL option) from California State University, East Bay in Hayward. He started teaching in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan in 2005. He has worked in Adult Education and at IEP’s. In addition to his teaching degree, Jerry has an M.B.A. with options in Marketing, Human Resources, and International Business. He has owned and operated a number of successful businesses and loves to talk about business. He is on the board of directors for the Bay Area Chapter of CATESOL (California Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages). He has presented at several conferences and is interested in vocabulary acquisition. His hobbies include tennis, golf, and learning new languages.

Joshua Kurzweil

Josh began his teaching career in 1990. He has taught and trained in Japan, Spain, the Republic of Georgia, and the United States. He received his Master's degree in teaching from SIT, holds the Cambridge CELTA and DELTA, and a Master Practitioner Certificate in NLP. Josh has been involved in developing the curriculum for the SIT TESOL Certificate and is a trainer of trainers. In addition to working on the SIT course, Josh has been a trainer with the Peace Corps and does freelance consulting. His particular areas of interest include Experiential Learning and cross-cultural communication. Josh lives with his wife and son in Berkeley, California.

Mara Luning

Mara was always interested in teaching and got her BA in Liberal Studies and Spanish. She got her Masters in TESOL at San Francisco State University. She has traveled to 22 countries and hopes to teach English in Asia in the future.

Marshall Hughes

Marshall has been at IEC since 2007. He has a B.A. in Journalism/Public Relations (Fresno State University), an M.A. in Communication (University of Hawaii) and a TEFL certificate (Prague, Czech Republic). He spent 12 years teaching in public schools and a private university in Japan. He has additional teaching experience in Cambodia, China and Korea. He taught journalism at Hawaii Pacific College where he was also Sports Information Director and Assistant Athletic Director. He later did sports PR for the University of Hawaii, and was later a sports writer for the state's largest newspaper. He has been to 40 countries.

Matty Varban

Matty began teaching English in Germany, where she lived for eight years. After returning to the United States, she attended the University of Maryland and earned a Master’s in Education specializing in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Upon moving to California, she worked as an ESL instructor at the University of California, San Diego for thirteen years. In addition, she coordinated short-term programs. Once her family relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004, she started working at Contra Costa College in the ESL department. In the summer of 2006, she began teaching at IEC and became a full-time teacher in the fall of 2006.

Suzanne Stoddard

Suzanne received her B.A. in English Literature from U.C. Berkeley and her M.A. in TESOL at San Francisco State University. She has taught in Russia and done Community ESL including Citizenship Preparation in a grant-funded program she helped design. She has worked for the Contra Costa Community College system since 1998, and when she's not teaching can be found protesting war, creating new recipes, writing poetry, mentoring young people or running almost anywhere.